Gunota Headlines
Monday, January 31, 2005
More MSiA details
Taken from T.J. Grosnet's Yahoo site:
MSiA Asshimar - Comes with large beam rifle and a display base for its mobile armor form.
MSiA Galbaldy Beta - Beam saber, beam rifle, shield, and ballute pack.
MSiA HiZack - Zaku machine gun, beam rifle, heat hawk, beam rifle (listed twice for some reason), shield, missle pack, and ballute system.
MSiA Dark Dagger L - Cannon pack and bazooka instead of the flight unit.
MSiA Windam (Neo Lorrnoke custom) - Beam saber, beam rifle, shield, and flight unit.
EMSiA Zeta Gundam - The implementation of the waverider transformation is the same as the 2.0 version's but they do say that "because of the variable mechanism, this is a Z Gundam you can play with". Comes with beam rifle, beam saber, shield, grenade launchers, interchangable head part for the Zeta Zaku (we kid you not), and mobile armor form display stand.
Oricon reports that High And Mighty Color's "Pride" ranked #2 overall on their weekly charts with sales of 86,000 copies. It's noted that it managed this despite competition from new songs released the same day by established acts like Mai Kuraki, Nami Tamaki, and Gackt.
Hitomi Shimatani's "Garnet Moon" ranked 8th with 33,000 copies sold and T.M. Revolution's "vertical infinity" album sold 71,000 copies, making it the #3 album.
Sunday, January 30, 2005
Mentioned over a year ago here, Lorelei is set to come out in Japanese theatres March 5th. A trailer and other information about the movie can be seen at their official site. Yoshiyuki Tomino will be making a cameo appearance (this will be his first appearance in a movie, too) as an Imperial Japanese officer. However, he does not have any spoken dialog in the movie.
Another pic for an upcoming edition of SD Gundam Full Color mentions, in addition to Shinn Asuka's new MS, yet another new, top secret MS. The description reads as "A mecha piloted by a character who becomes central to the story. With the sheer volume of material carried in its enormous backpack, it can take out enemy MS fast."
Taniguchi Jouet Gros Network also mentions further entries in the Voice I-Doll series: Cagalli, Lunamaria, and Yzak.
A 15-second CM for the upcoming game has already appeared, mostly featuring footage from the old Tokyo Game Show trailer (2.6 MB, .mpg).
Yahoo! Japan News has a streaming video of Sayaka Isoyama's press conference on her being the CM spokesperson for the game. The streaming video is about 5 minutes long mostly featuring her. However, a 30 second long clip of Amuro vs Gene is part of this streaming video (which starts at the 45 second mark).
broadband version
narrowband version
Saturday, January 29, 2005
Taniguchi Jouet Gros Network updated with the following additional listings & details:
GFF Xi Gundam (convertible to Penelope)
Cosmic Region Freedom Gundam (3,864 yen, June)
MSiA Dark Dagger L (w/ cannon pack & bazooka)
MSiA Windam (Neo Lorrnoke custom, 1,575 yen, June)
MSiA HiZack (w/ ballute system, 1,575 yen, June)
MSiA Galbaldy Beta (w/ ballute system, 1,575 yen, May)
MSiA Asshimar (transforming, 1,785 yen, April)
It's unclear whether the Windam listed by Paratrick Model is the regular version or if it's the Neo Lorrnoke version and the release date was simply listed wrong.
Dengeki Hobby Magazine will release a separate issue called "MSiA Perfect Guide" in May. The book will come with a certificate where fans in Japan can redeem it for MS-06R High Mobility Zaku II Masaya Nakagawa custom. The book is only available by reserving it. UPDATED : This book will come with a MSiA colorless Strike Rouge.
A 15-second commercial for the Zeta Gundam movie can be seen at Ranobe (5.3 MB, rar'ed .wmv file). Password is "z".
A gabber on 2ch says that Hyper Hobby shows test shots of an HCM-Pro Nemo (no sale date yet). An AEUG Mk II is said to come after that.
A scan turned up clarifying things a bit: the Mk II is next, the Nemo after.
Friday, January 28, 2005
For those who just want to know the date and price, the game will be out on April 7, price is 7,140 yen.
Now to the details:
A public presentation announcing details about Project Pegasus' upcoming Mobile Suit Gundam: One Year War for the PS2 was held at Bandai HQ today. Bandai's Videogames Division General Manager Takashi Shouji and Namco's CT Company Vice President Yoichi Haraguchi greeted the attendees and from there a screening took place. The trailer shown included a voiceover by Ichiro Nagai, MSG's narrator.
The game was presented by Bandai's Yoshiyasu Horiuchi and Namco's Asahi Higashiyama, who played it in front of attendees. One Year War will have more than 20 stages, divided up into 3 types of missions: ground, space, and shooting. The standard layout goes Pre-Mission demo --> Briefing --> Mission Start --> Debriefing --> Post-Mission demo. The demos are created by Sunrise with new/old audio recordings. The usual controls have the left stick for movement, the right for the camera, R1 button for rifle, R2 for beam saber, L1 for dash (boost), L2 for jump, and L3/R3 for vulcans.
Namco is utilizing 3D graphics technology from titles like Ace Combat and the motion management system from Soul Caliber. Units like the Fanfan, Medea, and other small units/weapons have been recreated down to even small details. By request of Namco, they have added the ability to make MS able to land on any part of the flat areas of ships in space and remain standing there (recreating the scene where GMs were attached to the hull of a Magellan/Salamis).
Another key idea creators would like the fans to take notice of is "Memory Action". Memory Action recreates key scenes if players take the path of the animation. Scenes like Amuro vs Gene, Amuro vs Gadem, Garma's kamikaze, the Jet Stream Attack (even the Dom using both fists to take out the Medea), Dozle shooting his machine gun at the Gundam at Solomon, and Amuro's escape from A Baoa Qu were shown to the attendees. They also want fans to take note of the background settings, like buildings & objects, based on the actual animation.
Bandai's Video Game Department will be promoting the game first with the release of the PS2 "Gundam The Best" game series. Fans who have reserved any of the 7 "The Best" games will receive a "One Year War" special DVD (first come, first serve basis). The special DVD will include promotional video of the game, a trailer for the Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam movie, and footage/interviews of Toru Furuya and Shuichi Ikeda during their voice recording. All fans who have reserved the MSG One Year War game will receive a 30cm x 30cm Mobile Suit Gundam One Year War calendar. Also, the MG RX-78-2 Gundam ver Project Pegasus will come out March 26th (Price: 3,360 yen). Finally, 3 different commercials will appear for the game starting in March. Idol Sayaka Isoyama will be featured in those.
Bandai's goal is to sell 1,000,000 copies domestically, topping the previous sales mark of Federation vs Zeon (by Bandai/Capcom), which sold 980,000 copies.
Sources (including many pics) :
Game Watch
MS Gundam: One Year War/Project Pegasus official site
Quiter
Gpara.com
Dengeki Online
ITmedia Games
According to Ninshi Enmachou, Another Century's Episode was the #2 game in Japan on the day of its release, selling an estimated 130,000 copies. Better than MSG Vs. Z Gundam and SEED's Owaranai Asu E but still not up to the standards set by earlier PS2 Gundam-related games.
The following is being reported by Paratrick Model:
EMSiA Gundam Mk II Titans colors (unit No. 1, 1,800 yen, April)
EMSiA Gundam Mk II Titans colors (unit No. 2, 1,800 yen, April)
EMSiA Zeta Gundam (2,000 yen, June)
GFF Xi Gundam (5,500 yen, May)
Zeonography Action Zaku (convertible to Zaku Flipper, 3,680 yen, June)
MSiA Blaze Zaku Phantom (orange, 1,500 yen, April)
MSiA Dark Dagger L (1,500 yen, May)
MSiA Windam (1,500 yen, May)
The MSiA listings contrast from a rumored list that's been circulated around Japanese boards for about the past week. For comparison purposes, you can see a copy of that in English at Zinc Panic.
Thursday, January 27, 2005
Kodansha's Official File series returns on February 17th with the publication of Gundam SEED DESTINY Official File Character Vol. 1 and Mecha Vol. 1. 559 yen each.
Though no official announcement has been made by Bandai/Sunrise or Shouchiku, one of the theatres scheduled to show the movie has Zeta listed under a June premiere.
Wednesday, January 26, 2005
Oricon's daily singles rankings chart shows High And Mighty Color's "Pride", DESTINY's second opening, as the #2 song on the day of its release. Hitomi Shimatani's "Garnet Moon", the theme song from PS2's Another Century's Episode, which was also released the same day, ranks #7.
And almost forgot to mention that T.M. Revolution's "vertical limit" album also came out the same day and ranks #2 on Oricon's daily album rankings chart.
Here's something you don't see everyday: some anonymous person uploaded 3 1/2 minutes worth of 80's Gundam commercials, mainly featuring Gunpla, on Gazo Box's Nostalgic CM Review board (2.6 MB, .wmv file). If that doesn't work, Dra-Mata was nice enough to put up a mirror link.
From this month's hobby magazine:
Hobby Japan
Questions regarding future releases of HGUC and MG
- Zeta kits will be the focus with the movie release and the staff assures more will come even after the movies are over.
- No plan for updated version of MG Zeta Gundam as they are satisfied with the original release.
- HGUC will be the core for future Zeta kits.
Dengeki Hobby
MG Poll by the magazine modelers to celebrate the 10th anniversary of MG kits.
Favorite MG
1) MS-09 Dom
2) MSM-07 Z'gok
3) RX-78-2 ver Ka
3) GAT-X105 Aile Strike
5) MS-07B-3 Gouf Custom
Easiest to Assemble
1) MSM-07 Z'gok
2) MS-09 Dom
3) RX-79[G]
3) GAT-X105 Aile Strike
5) RGM-79C GM Kai
Easiest to Paint
1) AMX-004 Qubeley
2) MSM-07 Z'gok
3) MS-09 Dom
4) RX-79[G]
5) RX-77-2 Guncannon
Best Proportion
1) MS-09 Dom
1) MSM-07 Z'gok
3) GAT-X105 Aile Strike
4) RX-78-2 ver Ka
5) MS-18E Kampher
Best Gimmick
1) MSA-0011[Ext] Ex-S Gundam
2) MSZ-006A1 Zeta Plus
3) GAT-X105 Aile Strike
4) GF13-017NJII God Gundam
5) MSZ-006 Zeta Gundam
Most Parts (non-poll rankings)
1) FA-010S Full Armor ZZ Gundam
2) MSA-0011[Ext] Ex-S Gundam
3) FA-010A FAZZ
4) MSZ-010 ZZ Gundam
5) MSA-0011 S Gundam
6) MSN-04 Sazabi
7) FXA-05D+RX-178 Super Gundam
8) MSN-02 Perfect Zeong
9) RX-93 Nu Gundam
10) RX-78GP01-Fb
Least Parts
1) RB-79 Ball ver Ka
2) MSM-07 Z'gok
3) MSM-03 Gogg
4) MSM-07S Char's Z'gok
5) GF13-021NG Gundam Spiegal
The official Zeta site updated with theatre listings for its premier and a special message from Tomino and producer Matsumura.
Bandai released a press release stating UniversalCentury.Net will not go on sale Feb 14th as originally announced. It has been delayed until Summer 2005.
Tuesday, January 25, 2005
This month's Gundam Ace featured:
The Origin: Char & Sayla Edition V
A few years have passed since Jimba Ral, Char, and Sayla escaped Side 3. They are now living in Gibraltar under the name Edward Mass and Sayla Mass. Jimba Ral's old friend, Don Teablo, agreed to adopt them. Sayla volunteers at the refugee camp, while Char is not very fond of Jimba trying to teach him his father's ideal (Sayla calls Jimba's teachings poison). Meanwhile, Jimba meets with top officials from Anaheim Electronics in order to get revenge against the Zabis. Later that night, a group of unknown commandos enter their home to take out Don Teablo, Jimba, Char, and Sayla.
SEED DESTINY: The Edge
Manga version of episode 5 & 6 through Athrun's perspective.
SEED DESTINY Astray
Earth Alliance sends their last ace, Lena Imelia, former instructor of Ed the Ripper, and an army to crush South America's resistance. Jess covers the duel between Ed and Lena.
C.D.A.
Char takes out the Magellan, which killed the crews of the runaway Federation officers. During the battle, one of the Axis MS pilots died, which greatly angered Char. Char blames Enzo, one of Axis' hardliners calling for independence via military, for the whole debacle.
MS IGLOO
Manga version of first half of episode 3.
Turn A Gundam Side Story: Day of Rolan
The last installment of TAG side story drawn by Akiman. Story is a bit too weird to summarize it (sorry).
Gundam Legacy
The 7th story is the special edition of "Space, To the End of Flash" centering around Captain Matt, the pilot of Act Zaku from the game.
Preview of next issue
- Looks like Mirai will be appearing in The Origin Char & Sayla Edition.
- Latest info on Zeta Gundam Movie will be covered.
The official DESTINY site updated its character (Athrun, Heine, Archangel's crews), mechanic (Gouf Ignited), and story (ep 13 and 14 summaries) sections.
Monday, January 24, 2005
The Robot section now contains further weapons and mecha listings.
MS IGLOO's site updated with an interview with Yutaka Izubuchi and QTVR movies of Hildolfr's mobile form, the Jotunheim's hanger, and Demezier Sonnen.
The SD Gundam Force official site now has a R2 rental DVD jacket gallery up.
Finally, Gundam-X.net posted the results of their character popularity poll. The top 5 rankings...
Male characters:
1) Garrod Ran
2) Jamil Neate
3) Techcs Farzenbarg
4) Lancerow Dawell
5) Katokk Alzamille
Female characters:
1) Tiffa Adill
2) Para Shisu
3) Ennil El
4) Toniya Malme
5) Lucille Liliant
From 2ch's Char Custom Classic's ongoing Inheritor Of The Stars thread, the theatrical poster as seen in Gundam Ace.
From the March issue of Gundam Ace. Again, 500,000 readers were polled in Japan:
Top 30 Male Characters:
1) Char Aznable - MSG/The Origin
2) Athrun Zala - SEED DESTINY
3) Kira Yamato - SEED DESTINY
4) Amuro Ray - MSG/The Origin
5) Kamille Bidan - Zeta Gundam
6) Shinn Asuka - SEED DESTINY
7) Anavel Gato - 0083
8) Quattro Bageena - Zeta Gundam
9) Yzak Joule - SEED DESTINY
10) Rey Za Burrel - SEED DESTINY
11) Heero Yuy - Wing
12) Shiro Amada - 08th MS Team
13) Garrod Ran - Gundam X
14) Kai Shiden - MSG/The Origin
15) Oliver May - MS IGLOO
16) Mu La Flaga - SEED
17) Paptimus Scirocco - Zeta Gundam
18) Judau Ashta - Gundam ZZ
19) Dearka Elthman - SEED DESTINY
20) Domon Kasshu - G Gundam
21) Norris Packard - 08th MS Team
22) Uso Evin - V Gundam
23) Gilbert Dullindal - SEED DESTINY
24) Bernard Wiseman - 0080
25) Rau Le Creuset - SEED
26) Ramba Ral - MSG/The Origin
27) Miguel Aiman - SEED
28) Buran Blutarch - Zeta Gundam
29) Gihren Zabi - MSG/The Origin
30) Yuu Kajima - Blue Destiny
Top 30 Female Characters:
1) Lacus Clyne - SEED DESTINY
2) Lunamaria Hawke - SEED DESTINY
3) Cagalli Yula Athha - SEED DESTINY
4) Sayla Mass - MSG/The Origin
5) Stellar Loussier - SEED DESTINY
6) Haman Karn - Zeta Gundam/Portrait Of A Young Comet
7) Four Murasame - Zeta Gundam
8) Emma Sheen - Zeta Gundam
9) Aina Sahalin - 08th MS Team
10) Elpeo Ple - Gundam ZZ
11) Murrue Ramias - SEED DESTINY
12) Lalah Sune - MSG
13) Meyrin Hawke - SEED DESTINY
14) Matilda Ajan - MSG/The Origin
15) Christina Mackenzie - 0080
16) Fraw Bow - MSG/The Origin
17) Crowley Hamon - MSG/The Origin
18) Cima Garahau - 0083
19) Natarle Badgiruel - SEED
20) Mouar Pharaoh - Zeta Gundam
21) Chan Agi - CCA
22) Sara Zabiarov - Zeta Gundam
23) Ple 2 - Gundam ZZ
24) Tiffa Adill - Gundam X
25) Mirai Yashima - MSG/The Origin
26) Talia Gladys - SEED DESTINY
27) Cecily Fairchild - Gundam F91
28) Shiho Hahnenfuss - SEED MSV
29) Nina Purpleton - 0083
30) Asuna Elmarit - Ecole du Ciel
Top 30 MS:
1) Freedom Gundam - SEED
2) Zeta Gundam - Zeta Gundam
3) Nu Gundam - CCA
4) Saviour Gundam - SEED DESTINY
5) Hyaku Shiki - Zeta Gundam
6) Qubeley - Zeta Gundam
7) Gundam - MSG/The Origin
8) Justice Gundam - SEED
9) Gaia Gundam - SEED DESTINY
10) Sazabi - CCA
11) Zaku II - MSG/The Origin
12) Wing Gundam Zero - Wing: Endless Waltz
13) Gundam Mk-II - Zeta Gundam
14) Force Impulse Gundam - SEED DESTINY
15) ZZ Gundam - Gundam ZZ
16) Strike Gundam - SEED
17) Slash Zaku Phantom - SEED DESTINY
18) Acguy - MSG/The Origin
19) Kämpfer - 0080
20) Gouf Custom - 08th MS Team
21) Gunner Zaku Warrior - SEED DESTINY
22) Zaku Phantom - SEED DESTINY
23) Sword Impulse Gundam - SEED DESTINY
24) Aegis Gundam - SEED
25) Buster Gundam - SEED
26) Strike Rouge - SEED
27) Chaos Gundam - SEED DESTINY
28) Duel Gundam - SEED
29) Gundam F91 - Gundam F91
30) The O - Zeta Gundam
Breakdown of how each series fared based on the above results:
MSG/The Origin - 14
08th MS Team - 4
0080 - 3
0083 - 3
Zeta - 14
ZZ - 4
CCA - 3
F91 - 2
V - 1
G - 1
Wing - 2
X - 2
Turn A - 0
SEED - 11
SEED DESTINY - 22
Astray - 0
SEED MSV - 1
Ecole du Ciel - 1
Blue Destiny - 1
MS IGLOO - 1
Saturday, January 22, 2005
Bandai Visual Entering US
Nikkei News is reporting that Bandai Visual will establish a new US subsidiary, "Bandai Visual USA". The new company will be based in California. Bandai Visual USA will be in charge of selling hit Japanese Anime DVDs and researching the US market which will reflect back to anime production.
Their SEED section has new profiles and glossary entries.
Friday, January 21, 2005
Bandai announces that Gundam vs. Z Gundam for the PS2 will be coming to America this Summer.
After some lengthy downtime, Gundam Plus is finally back up.
AnimeFest announced that Maaya Sakamoto (Lunamaria Hawke from SEED DESTINY, Hitomi from Escaflowne) is confirmed as a guest and will also perform in concert. AnimeFest runs from Sept. 2 to Sept 5.
The official site for PS2's Another Century's Episode updated with a few things, including several promotional videos and commercials.
A TV commercial for Gundam SEED DESTINY -Edited-, which airs next week, was put up at Ranobe (4.6 MB, zipped .mpg).
Direct links to Ranobe don't seem to be working as well as they used to so if clicking doesn't work, try copying & pasting or going to the main file directory and you should be able to see it (assuming the file isn't deleted by its original poster).
As usual, put this link into your Windows Media Player and you get the commercial for Gundam Evolve 13, featuring the Marasai and some cute chick & a hobby shop dude yakking about Zeta models.
Thursday, January 20, 2005
New MS:
Babi - Transforming ZAFT MS.
New characters:
Conil Almeta - A young girl with the anti-Alliance resistance in Eurasia's Western Galnahan. 14-years-old. Under her guidance, the Minerva strikes an Alliance stronghold.
DESTINY MSV:
Proto Chaos
It's being reported on 2ch boards that this month's hobby mags have announced that the next Master Grade will be an RX-78-2 (Project Pegasus version). Price and sale date to be announced. Also an HGUC Gundam Mk II + Flying Armor (2,100 yen, March 26th).
Adding more that were subsequently confirmed:
HG Saviour Gundam (1,575 yen, March)
1/100 Blaze Zaku Phantom (2,730 yen, March)
1/100 Gunner Zaku Warrior (color to be determined, 2,415 yen, March)
1/144 Blast Impulse (525 yen, April)
On Bandai Visual's site, it states that the audio commentary for the first and final episodes on the Gundam X DVD's will be done by Wataru Takagi (Garrod Ran), Mika Kanai (Tiffa Adill), Hideyuki Tomioka (Sunrise producer), and Shinji Takamatsu (director).
Winners of the 8th Japan Media Arts Festival were announced. In the Entertainment category (Images), MS IGLOO was recognized as one of the jury's recommended works. In the Animation division, Yasuhiro Imagawa's Tetsujin 28 was selected among others.
Wednesday, January 19, 2005
Pics of the posters that come with advance tickets sold for the Zeta movies are up on the official site.
One can view the trailer for Bandai Entertainment's release of Overman King Gainer at their site for the show.
The final scores are 8, 7, 7, 7.
Tuesday, January 18, 2005
One can get a look at a couple of .avi movies of the MMORPG UC.net Gundam Online in action from this site. Copying & pasting the links seems to work better than clicking on them:
1 (26.2 MB)
2 (1.8 MB)
3 (2.5 MB)
Yoshiyuki Tomino is set to appear as lecturer for the 28th Annual Kitasato University Alumni Association Lecture. The theme of the lecture will be "25 Years After Gundam, Can You Become a Newtype?". The event is free (however only 300 can attend) and takes place this upcoming Saturday January 22nd from 2pm to 3:30pm.
Monday, January 17, 2005
Sunrise officially announced that T.M. Revolution's Takanori Nishikawa is voicing the new character Haine Westenfluss. The character is an elite pilot belonging to Athrun's Faith and uses the "Gouf Ignited".
Edit: A further explanation for the spelling, as I see it. The name seems to be German in origin, ハイネ being "Heine". But that's not the interesting thing. His last name seems to be the combination of two separate German words, ヴェステン (westen), and フルス (fluss). And, in German, "westen" means "west" and "fluss" means "river". Why is that interesting? Because that's exactly what the two kanji in 西川 (nishikawa) mean in Japanese as well, "west" + "river". Thanks to this Japanese-German site for helping make that connection.
UPDATE 2: Haine was the name Nishikawa went by early in his career as the vocalist for the band named Luis-Mary.
Saturday, January 15, 2005
As pointed out by Mark Simmons at GundamWatch, HLJ has a pic of that 1/144 Blaze Zaku Phantom (Faith squad).
Friday, January 14, 2005
Kodansha Book Club has a pic of the cover for the first collected volume of Mizuho Takayama's manga adaption of SEED DESTINY. Included is a special "Episode Zero" which wasn't part of the TV series version. It comes out on January 17th, is 165 pages, and goes for 530 yen.
Rakuten has pics of the boxart for most of the PS2 "Best" re-released Gundam games.
